The
Middle Passage occurs when the person is obliged
to view his or her life as something more than
a linear succession of years. The longer one remains
unconscious, which is quite easy to do in our
culture, the more likely one is to see life only
as a succession of moments leading toward some
vague end, the purpose of which will become clear
in due time. When one is stunned into consciousness,
a vertical dimension, kairos, intersects the horizontal
plane of life; one’s life span is rendered
in a depth perspective: “Who am I, then,
and whither bound?”

The
Middle Passage begins when the person is obliged
to ask anew the question of meaning which once
circumambulated the child’s imagination
but was effaced over the years. The Middle Passage
begins when one is required to face issues which
heretofore had been patched over. The question
of identity returns and one can no longer evade
responsibility for it. Again, the Middle Passage
starts when we ask, “Who am I, apart from
my history and the roles I have played?”